"Rose Covered Glasses" is a serious essay, satire and photo-poetry commentary from a group of US Military Veterans in Minnesota.
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Sunday, December 01, 2013

The US Army's Future Mission is Vague, Leaving Industry with Little Direction

Photo
"Go Army. com"

As
an Army Veteran, and having worked in Aerospace over 3 decades to supportArmy programs, I found the below article by
John Keller, Editor in Chief, "Military & Aerospace Electronics"
magazine an objective and disturbing piece.Note the references to mission vacuum and lack of civilian leadership in
Washington D.C.

John
highlights that as the nation is struggling with stagnated politics the
services are hampered by a lack of hard information to plan ahead.

Mr.
Keller introduces a historical perspective and an excellent view of the hard
issues, challenges and uncertainty that the Army and industry in its supporting
role are facing today.

"MILITARY
AND AEROSPACE ELECTRONICS":

"A
variety of factors are gathering into a potential perfect stormthat could threaten the U.S. Army's future
mission, the continuingrelevance of the
oldest American military service, and how the defense industry can move forward
to support the Army's needs.

Some
of these factors are well-known: sequestration, dim prospectsfor budget growth, and substantial technology
research and developmentthat for most
practical purposes has come nearly to a dead-stop.

Perhaps
most serious, however, is how top military and civilianleadership define the Army's role moving into
the future, the topthreats the Army
will evolve to meet, and the very relevance of a largestanding Army in an era when large-scale,
big-iron military land battlesappear to
be part of the past.

Here's
where we are today: U.S. military forces are finishing theirexit from Iraq, where they have operated for
more than a decade. Theirfinal exit
from Afghanistan is but a few years off, or less. Whenoperations on Southwest Asia are completed,
where does the Army go fromthere?

The
Army has had a clear set of missions sincethe U.S. entered World War II in 1941. Although the close of the
SecondWorld War in 1945 saw a rapid
drawdown in U.S. military power, thestrengthening Soviet Union was on everyone's mind.

Less
than five years after World War II ended, North Korea invadedSouth Korea, which created another sudden and
dire mission for the Army.That mission
grew from containing North Korean forces to containingCommunism around the world, which continued
until the fall of the BerlinWall in
1990. One year later, Iraq invaded Kuwait, which gave rise toOperation Desert Shield, and eventually the
military ouster of Iraqiforces from
Kuwait in Operation Desert Storm, in which the Army played acentral role.

For
the next decade, keeping an eye on a contained-but-restless Iraqimilitary, on ethnic strife in what then was
Yugoslavia, and on othersimmering hot
spots throughout the world held the Army's attention andhelped define its mission.

Today
things are different. Counter-insurgency operations are nearingan end in Iraq and Afghanistan, Russia does
not pose the immediatemilitary threat
that did its predecessors of the Soviet Union, andEurope has been relatively quiet.

Still,
trouble spots persist in areas like Syria and Iran, but withno open conflict yet involving U.S. Army
forces. There is no immediateand dire
threat in these areas, and hence no clear Army mission-at leastnot yet.

So
how does the Army move forward? Counter-insurgency, certainly. Special Forces
capability, ofcourse. But what's the
role of the large Army infrastructure involvinglarge combat infantry units, main battle tanks, armored fighting
vehicles, and other organizations designed for large ground conflicts?

I'm
not sure there is a role, and I'm not convinced that the top Armyleadership today knows what its role in the
future will be, either.Maybe the Army
is at a moment of transition, and leaders will get ahandle on the Army's core mission sometime
soon. With the civilianleadership
vacuum we have in Washington, I'm not sure the Army will beable to do so. If Army leaders are unable to
define the Army's long-termmission
clearly, then the defense industry will have no idea how toproceed, other than to guess.

These
factors were on display just below the surface last month atthe Association of the U.S. Army (AUSA). What
was striking in exhibitswas a lack of
direction in where we go from here. It was as though theindustry were pointing out to the Army
officers walking the aisles howfar
technology has led us to this moment, yet pleading for direction onwhere the industry should go from here."

JohnKeller is editor-in-chief of Military &
Aerospace Electronicsmagazine, which
provides extensive coverage and analysis of enablingelectronic and optoelectronic technologies in
military, space, and commercial aviation applications. A member of the Military
& Aerospace Electronics staff since the magazine's founding in 1989, Mr.
Keller took over as chief editor in 1995.

About Me

2 Tours in US Army Vietnam.
Retired from 36 Years in the Defense Industrial Complex after working on 25 major weapons systems, many of which are in use today in the Middle East.
Volunteer MicroMentor. I specialize in Small, Veteran-owned, Minority-Owned and Woman-Owned Businesses beginning work for the Federal Government.
MicroMentor is a non-profit organization offering free assistance to small business in business planning, operations, marketing and other aspects of starting and successfully operating a small enterprise.
You can set up a case with me at MicroMentor by going to:
http://www.micromentor.org/
key words: "Federal Government Contracting"

The Colors of Hastings

EXPRESSION OF GRATITUDE

My gratitude to the person or persons who sent to me a new Sony Cybershot DSC-H90 Camera.There was no return address or acknowledgment of the kindness, other than a one sentence, typewritten note that read:

"For all that you do for others"

I am very grateful and will put the marvelous precision instrument to good use - Ken